Furor over antenna plan near Marina preschool

Marsha Ginsburg, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, June 24, 1997

1997-06-24 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- After listening to worries from parents who feared their preschool children could be exposed to controversial electromagnetic fields, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors delayed a decision to allow six proposed antennas on top of a Marina District city garage.

The one-week delay allows time for angry parents and Sprint, which is requesting the antennas to improve reception for cellular phone customers, to negotiate over the location of the antennas. They are currently slated to be placed on top of a four-story garage on Lombard Street, near the Tule Elk preschool, which takes care of many disabled children.

At a public hearing before the board Monday, parents from the school complained that the Planning Commission had approved the proposed antennas without fully hearing their concerns about the controversial electromagnetic fields.

Some studies have suggested that they could contribute to causing cancer, birth defects, miscarriages and other health problems. Other research has found no proof of health-related problems.

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The delay comes just four months after the Planning Commission denied Sprint Corp.'s efforts to put a wireless antenna at the Calvary United Methodist Church at Judah Street and 19th Avenue. The church basement is occupied by the Wah Mei preschool, serving 70 children.

Christina Stout, a longtime San Francisco resident, said the Planning Commission, which approved the antennas last month, didn't give enough notice to residents about the proposal.

"Is corporate greed more important than the safety of these children?" Stout asked.

One mother said at least 80 children, one of whom is hers, at the decades-old preschool located on nearby Fillmore street were disabled and had compromised immune systems.

She said San Francisco had an interim moratorium on electromagnetic field towers near residences, but for these children, the school is their home for up to 11 hours a day.

Planning Director Gerald Green told the board that federal law precluded his department from forbidding the antennas based on health reasons alone, and that the department saw no legal problem with the Sprint proposal.

Sprint spokesman William Rutland said he was appalled that the preschool had asked for the company to pay it "an amount equal" to what was paid to The City for the right to use the building. He said it "sounded like extortion."

But parents from the preschool said that the preschool had agreed to take financial help only after Sprint offered it.

Supervisor Amos Brown was the only board member who voted against continuing the matter. Brown said that since The City allowed antennas near Laguna Honda Hospital, where the elderly are confined, it should be consistent and allow the antennas for the garage near the preschool. Children, he argued, should be no more protected than the elderly.